Crossword clues for observance
observance
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Observance \Ob*serv"ance\, n. [F. observance, L. observantia. See Observant.]
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The act or practice of observing or noticing with attention; a heeding or keeping with care; performance; -- usually with a sense of strictness and fidelity; as, the observance of the Sabbath is general; the strict observance of duties.
It is a custom More honored in the breach than the observance.
--Shak. -
An act, ceremony, or rite, as of worship or respect; especially, a customary act or service of attention; a form; a practice; a rite; a custom.
At dances These young folk kept their observances.
--Chaucer.Use all the observance of civility.
--Shak.Some represent to themselves the whole of religion as consisting in a few easy observances.
--Rogers.O I that wasted time to tend upon her, To compass her with sweet observances!
--Tennyson. -
Servile attention; sycophancy. [Obs.]
Salads and flesh, such as their haste could get, Served with observance.
--Chapman.This is not atheism, But court observance.
--Beau. & Fl.Syn: Observance, Observation. These words are discriminated by the two distinct senses of observe. To observe means (1) to keep strictly; as, to observe a fast day, and hence, observance denotes the keeping or heeding with strictness; (2) to consider attentively, or to remark; and hence, observation denotes either the act of observing, or some remark made as the result thereof. We do not say the observation of Sunday, though the word was formerly so used. The Pharisees were curious in external observances; the astronomers are curious in celestial observations.
Love rigid honesty, And strict observance of impartial laws.
--Roscommon.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
early 13c., "act performed in accordance with prescribed usage," especially a religious or ceremonial one, from Old French observance, osservance "observance, discipline," or directly from Latin observantia "act of keeping customs, attention, respect, regard, reverence," from observantem (nominative observans), present participle of observare (see observe). Observance is the attending to and carrying out of a duty or rule. Observation is watching, noticing.
Wiktionary
n. 1 The practice of complying with a law, custom, command or rule 2 The custom of celebrating a holiday or similar occasion 3 observation or the act of watching 4 (context religion English) A rule governing a religious order, especially in the Roman Catholic church
WordNet
n. the act of observing; taking a patient look [syn: observation, watching]
a formal event performed on a special occasion; "a ceremony commemorating Pearl Harbor" [syn: ceremony, ceremonial, ceremonial occasion]
the act of noticing or paying attention; "he escaped the notice of the police" [syn: notice, observation]
conformity with law or custom or practice etc. [syn: honoring] [ant: nonobservance]
Wikipedia
An observance is a day of commemoration, see:
- International observances
- List of unofficial observances
- United States observance
Usage examples of "observance".
If the founder of the Christian religion had deemed belief in the Gospel and a life in accordance with it to be compatible with membership of the Synagogue and observance of the Jewish law, there could at least be no impossibility of adhering to the Gospel within the Catholic Church.
Order was transformed into a Strict Templar Observance Masonic Lodge, although it still maintained its alchemical nature.
Their peculiar distinctions of days, of meats, and a variety of trivial though burdensome observances, were so many objects of disgust and aversion for the other nations, to whose habits and prejudices they were diametrically opposite.
How shall the perplexed navigator steer his course when monitors in office accuse him on the one hand of lax precision throughout, and belaud him on the other for careful observance of detail?
It is upon the ground that a State can not be coerced that observance of the compact is a sacred obligation.
Though Reyes felt awkward when using ranks to ask Desai over to his quarters for dinner, the strict observance of protocol had already averted a few potential embarrassments for them both.
A great slaughter of cattle would then take place, it being impossible to keep the beasts in stall throughout the winter, and this time of slaughter would naturally be a season of feasting and sacrifice and religious observances.
They were mainly flawed in this respect: they too often wasted their gifts in fanatic observance of their religious beliefs, which were flagrantly fatuous.
The outcome was a humiliation for Baron von Hund, who came to argue the Templar case, and it was effectively the end of the Strict Templar Observance.
Although von Hund was initiated in Paris and first began promoting his new system in France, the Strict Templar Observance had its greatest initial success in his native Germany, where it was known at first as the Brethren of St John the Baptist.
Mademoiselle Linders had gained her present position not less by her superior birth and education, than by that to which she would more willingly have attributed her elevation--a certain asceticism of life which she affected, an extra observance of fasts and vigils, which the good nuns looked upon with reverence, without caring to emulate such peculiar sanctity in their own persons.
King Henry VIII was about to make an expedition to France in 1544, the Court of Aldermen gave notice to the Bishop of London that the obit of Henry VII would be kept on Friday, the 16th May, on which day there would be a general procession, and that the observance would be continued until the king departed out of the realm, and then on every Friday and Wednesday until his return.
In addition to making those numerous observances, I, as an oblate and postulant, had to include time for religious instruction and secular education as well.
Brothers, Converts, and Oblates, under perpetual vows, so long as they live in the observance of the rule.
Their uneasiness was also not a little heightened by new broils between their king and the parliament of Paris, occasioned by the obstinacy of the clergy of that kingdom, who seemed determined to support the church, in all events, against the secular tribunals, and as much as possible to enforce the observance of the bull Unigenitus, which had long been the occasion of so many disputes among them.